Author Archives: JMN

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About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.

What We Are Just

Posted on August 6, 2019 by JMN

In this essay Sara Nolan affirms with wit and grain her sense of the “godliness of the everyday” brought home by the birth of babies of any species. I glimpsed it with sugar ants. We are just creation playing its … Continue reading →

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Feminine Manet

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

My favorite touch on this painting is the mauve-against-yellow bonnet garnish — purple-yellow adjacencies enthuse me. Otherwise, the mannequin with the bee-sting pucker and doe-stupid gaze is both masterful and tiresome. Jason Farago writes about the exhibition “Manet and Modern … Continue reading →

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Weaponized Food

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

“Food is constantly implicated in economic and political processes, as well as in social and historical processes… Because of the recent events in the Middle East, even something as innocent looking as a ground chickpea ball can be used as … Continue reading →

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“Auntie Colours”

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

The influence of fashion and grooming on art (and vice versa?) is of great interest to me. The mention of Sonia Delaunay brings back pleasant memories of being thrilled at a receptive age by her work and that of her … Continue reading →

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“Like Meditation or Dancing”

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

This year-old piece from The Guardian has some charming, free-and-easy-seeming sketching that I would dearly love to be able to pull off myself. Earlier this month, London-based artist Joey Yu headed to Field Day, a two-day music festival held in … Continue reading →

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Smith at the Crease

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

I’ve excerpted this piece with love and impish selectivity from Vic Marks’s excellent cricket bloviation. While [Steve Smith] is still at the crease nothing can be guaranteed… England made some solid progress: a first-innings lead of 90 and three early … Continue reading →

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Epitaph

Posted on August 1, 2019 by JMN

Like the blogs of yore, podcasts… are today’s de rigueur medium… And yet the frequency with which podcasts start (and then end, or “podfade,” as it’s coming to be known in the trade) has produced a degree of cultural exhaustion. … Continue reading →

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Bed Science

Posted on August 1, 2019 by JMN

The Bed Science Made Better Can your bed make you feel this good? (Ad in NYTimes online) Can my bed make me feel that good? Probably not. But the improved bed science created by an elided subordinating conjunction, and Henry … Continue reading →

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Flock of Ties

Posted on August 1, 2019 by JMN

(c) 2019 JMN

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(Cough, Herd)

Posted on July 30, 2019 by JMN

If past experience (cough, blogs) is any indication, a shakeout is nigh. (Jennifer Miller, “Have We Hit Peak Podcast?” NYTimes, 7-18-19) A bigger shakeout than podcasting (cough, climate change) is nigh. I’m reminded of a New Yorker cartoon in which … Continue reading →

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